Currently not on view
Eva,
1918, printed 1921
George Grosz, German, 1893–1959
Printed by Dr. Selle & Co. AG, German, active 1921–1932
Published by Malik-Verlag, German, active 1916–1947
Printed by Dr. Selle & Co. AG, German, active 1921–1932
Published by Malik-Verlag, German, active 1916–1947
x1971-45
Like his friend John Heartfield, George Grosz was, for a time, active among the Berlin Dadaists and the Communist Party. Disgusted with religion, militarism, nationalism, and rationalism, Grosz put his skills as a caricaturist to work in his 1923 book Ecce homo, Latin for "Behold, the man," a reference to Pontius Pilate as well as to Friedrich Nietzsche. Caustic and disconcerting, Grosz's book consists of one hundred offset lithographs based on drawings and watercolors made between 1915 and 1922. Together they amount to an inventory of German social types, among them the wounded soldier, corrupt politician, greedy banker, libidinous bourgeois, rank prostitute, and poor mother. Upon its publication, plates from Ecce homo were confiscated by censors, and the artist was charged with "corrupting the sense of shame and virtue innate to the German people."
Information
Title
Eva
Dates
1918, printed 1921
Maker
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
65.5 × 50.2 cm (25 13/16 × 19 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Paul F. Walter
Object Number
x1971-45
Place Made
Europe, Germany, Berlin
Inscription
Signed in graphite below stone, lower right: G GROSZ.
Square red stamp with inscription in purple graphite, lower right corner: 20B
Inscribed in graphite, verso lower left: 10 [16?] Nr 250
George Grosz Nachlass stamp in purple with ink inscriptions, lower left: 7//225 / 10
Inscribed and dated in graphite, lower right: Meiner Freundin gewidmet / 1921
Marks/Labels/Seals
Watermark: indecipherable script of first name, middle initial, and last name
Culture
Type
Materials
Techniques
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